Facebook on the go

Facebook is really trying to make itself more useful while it's users are on the go. A few days ago, I noticed this new link appearing under the profile pictures of my friends:

Subscribe by SMS. When I click it Facebook tells me "Jeff's status updates will now be delivered to your phone via mobile texts." Cool.

Here are some other things you can do while on the go. I particularly love the "Get cell phone #" option. Way useful while on the go. Here's the full list of what you can text to FBOOK (32665):

Update status: is at john's party
Message: msg john smith whats up?
Get profile info: srch john smith
Get cell phone #: cell john smith
Wall post wall: john smith happy bday
Poke: poke john smith
Add a friend: add john smith
Write a note: note this is a mobile note

Since Facebook is so easy to use on the web, this is their way of heading Twitter off at the pass in the mobile arena. Twitter is growing (by double), but even my Mom's on Facebook.

I don't know about you, but I miss George Bush

This is so funny! Kaitlyn fell asleep at dinner

Photo assignment: Kids Co-Op

The girls' teacher asked me if I would take some photos so they could update their website. I'm pretty sure it was the first time I was on an "official" photo assignment. Here are a few of my favorites from the set.















I've got so much to learn, but this was fun. The lighting was pretty low, so the ISO was up to 1000 (hence the grainyness). Hope you like.

Microsoft's Facebook Demo

Well, well, well. Microsoft has some tricks up it's sleeve with Silverlight (and maybe .net, we'll see), but take a look at what they did in just 72 hours with Facebook's new API.

It' s not open to developers (yet) but when it is - who the hell is going to actually GO to facebook.com? It'll be like Twitter how I get my data by using TweetDeck and Twittergadget.

17,000 visits

17,000 visits, originally uploaded by -SPK.

Just wanted to say thank you to the 17,000 people who visited PatrickKaine.com

Y'all come back now, ya hear?

Watch Christopher Hitchens Get Waterboarded (VANITY FAIR)

Here is another update on Waterboarding. (previous one here)

It's crazy how quickly the people are giving up. Crazy.

But, it is torture and why?

My ladies

My ladies, originally uploaded by -SPK.

This picture makes me happy.

Waterboarding: How long could you last?

We've all read so much about Waterboarding and whether or not it is torture. I had never seen a demonstration before. Watch below as this journalist tries to go through 15 seconds of it.



Having seen this - do you consider Waterboarding Torture? Leave a comment.

An interactive map of vanishing employment across the country

http://slate.com/id/2216238/

Idiot Example

Nice quoit!

Nice quoit!, originally uploaded by -SPK.

Beck about to land a point on our new Quoit set over the weekend.

Get your own at http://quoitfactory.com/

Spin me around!

Paige and Kaitlyn spin at the bowling alley.

I love how Paige just drops Kaitlyn when she's done.

A letter from The White House

I posted this video on a memorable November 4th, 2008 just after Paige and I voted for Barack Obama:



At the end of December, Paige wanted to write this letter:



Full version here:



Well, today we got this envelope in the in the mail:



And this note was inside it:




Pretty darn cool, I say! Paige is so fired up!

Kaitlyn

Kaitlyn, originally uploaded by -SPK.

New Computer Wallpaper

New Wallpaper, originally uploaded by -SPK.

It's supposed to look like you are viewing "through" the monitor... it was very hard to do and harder to match the colors of the screen to the "real" background.

Still a really fun project.

Jason McElway, Autistic Basketball Hero

Skype for iPhone coming this week

According to TechCrunch, Skype for the iPhone will be released tomorrow.

Skype is a free application that allows users to talk to each other over the internet through connections called Voice over IP (VOIP). The iPhone app will also be free and allow any user of an iPhone to make 100% unlimited and free calls to other Skype users as long as they are connected to a wireless network.

Skype's application allow users to talk through VOIP no matter where they are in the world. The release of this application for the iPhone is HUGE becuase before you really had to be a geek to connect a mic to a computer and make a call from Starbucks, tomorrow - you'll just need to pick up your iPhone and call your cousin in Paraguay. Oh, by the way you can talk all you want, it'll be free.

T-Mobile launched Unlimited Hot Spot calling and I wrote about it inway back in October of 2006. The reason it never took off? You needed to be in a T-Mobile hot spot location. Bad move, T-Mobile, you could grabbed some serious marketshare there.

What is Twitter?

A lot of people in my circle have begun to ask me about Twitter. It seems the media is a buzz about Twitter and people are wondering what it is all about, should they join, and am I on Twitter? Since I read the entire internet so you don't have to.® what follows is my view on what Twitter is and why it's becoming so popular.

Twitter is a way to update your status or "micro blog" on a subject in 140 characters or less (basically the length of a SMS text message on a cell phone). Since 61 percent of the worlds population has a cell phone - the Twitter phenomena continues to explode through text messaging.

Once you join Twitter and get a username (mine is PatrickKaine), you'll want to start following people. When you follow someone and they send a tweet (the really gay way of saying they updated their status), you'll be able to see the message on your Twitter home page, on your cell phone as an SMS, through an RSS subscription, or any/all of these.

Keep up with things that are happening RIGHT NOW. I am following 69News (our local news station) and tonight they tweeted (I really hate writing that) about a severe thunderstorm approaching with hail and a funnel cloud. Lets say you are absolutely fascinated with Facebook and want to read everything about it. Do a Twitter search for Facebook and get real time results of people "talking" about it. Tip: I like going to Twitscoop and watching the rising trend key words to see what people are talking about right now.

Stay 'indirectly' connected. Lets say that a group of co-workers are working on a project or are just working together. I wouldn't send an email to Amy telling her that I'm stopping in on a client - but I might chose to use Twitter to update my status about this and all of those who follow me will be a little more "connected" knowing what I'm up to. When you do the same, we're staying connected - maybe even from hundreds of miles away from each other.

Connect with people who share similar interests. I recently contacted a co-worker through Twitter about how she was using her iPhone for work and if she was able to access SalesForce.com on it (the CRM program we use at my job). I end up getting an @reply from someone who saw my message and wanted to let me know that SalesForce now as a free lite version for the iPhone.

Posting mobile photos. Take a photo from your mobile phone and upload it to Twitpic. The subject line of the MMS will be your status update on Twitter with a link to the photo you just uploaded. Who could forget the US Airways crash in the Hudson? This photo was uploaded to Twitpic and Twitter in real time. This guy was in another plane crash and was Twittering his updates from the inside of the jet!

Here is some basic Twitter know how to help get you started.

• @username + message
  
directs a twitter at another person, and causes your twitter to save in their "replies" tab.
Example: @patrickkaine I love your blog!


• D username + message
  
sends a person a private message that goes to their device, and saves in their web archive.
Example: d patrickkaine want to pick me up some milk while you are at the there?


• WHOIS username
  
retrieves the profile information for any public user on Twitter.
Example: whois patrickkaine


• GET username
  
retrieves the latest Twitter update posted by the person.
Example: get patrickkaine


• NUDGE username
  
reminds a friend to update by asking what they're doing on your behalf.
Example: nudge patrickkaine


• FAV username
  
marks a person's last twitter as a favorite. (hint: reply to any update with FAV to mark it as a favorite if you're receiving it in real time)
Example: fav patrickkaine

• STATS
this command returns your number of followers, how many people you're following, and which words you're tracking.


• INVITE phone number
  
will send an SMS invite to a friend's mobile phone.
Example: Invite 415 555 1212

Goose Throwdown

No fear goose!